It's Called "EPIC" For A Reason -- RBN Energy -- January 8, 2025

Locator: 44639B. 

Carter: significant delays in scheduled events; weather-related. 

• global warming impacts the DC area. Some folks using the word “unprecedented.”
  

California fires:

• 0% controlled
• three more hours until daylight
• high winds won't begin to die down for several more hours
• peak wind hours right now (posted 3:36 a.m. PT, January 8, 2025)
• Starlink absolutely critical for emergency services, news outlets, residents
• Starlink, wholly owned by SpaceX. Is it time for an EMX (Elon Musk ETF)?
• lack of brush clearance probably number one factor for loss of property once fires in California start
• something that's been known for decades; was mentioned this morning by reporters noting which neighborhoods took biggest hits
• question whether there is adequate water; Fire Department spokesmen say there is no shortage, but on the ground, some homeowners suggesting something else
• later: official Palisades fire department stated that hydrants at the. higher level did fail / run out of water, but it was for various causes, all of which could have been mitigated had the agencies taken appropriate action since the last major fire, lessons learned in 2011
• mayor of Palisades has not yet returned from her trip to Ghana; at 10:59 a.m. CT, January 8, 2025, it was stated she was on her last leg home, having departed DFW this morning.
  
• many, many big stories coming out of the Palisades fire
• one of the biggest fire breaks breached: the fire jumped the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH); reached the beach; took out historic sites, including the Reel Inn
• cars and at least one structure on the sand / on the beach were set on fire!
  
• three major fires now:
• Eaton Canyon: 
• north of Los Angeles, north of Pasadena; Altadena.
  
• Hearst fire: 210 and "the 5": 
• Sylmar to Santa Clara; northwest of Lost Angeles
• Sylmar fire: has been burning about six hours; began 10:00 p.m. local time, January 7, 2025
• lots of livestock, particularly horses
• broke out where "the 5" meets "the 410" and the"the 210"
  
• Palisades: 
• the one we're hearing the most about; west of Los Angeles;
  

Bully pulpit:

• Trump knows how to use it
• talking heads consistently tell us that Trump will have to cut back on "talk" once he actually needs to start "presidenting"
• those talking heads simply don't get it

Trump 2.0 tracked here:

• when one surfs the net, particularly X, one realizes how absolutely misguided the Biden administration was
• start with the  FTC chair
• end with Kamala Harris
• add Jennifer Granholm, among the top three
• Biden was in a class of his own
• truly, Carter lived long enough to see that he won't go down as America's worst president
• in Biden's case, the aphorism "cream rises to the top" does not apply
• playing with a 51-card deck (at best) 
• one of Biden's most important legacies for Trump: lowering the bar on pardons, presidential medals of freedom
  
• gives Trump lots of opportunities
  

EVs

• globally, can't make it without subsidies
• most recent examples, reported today, January 8, 2025
• China: adding / maintaining incentives to encourage folks to buy EVs
• Honda: likely to delay EV push under Trump

Immigration

• Massachusetts governor pivots; now supports Trump administration
• an incredibly amazing story that convinced the governor to change her position
  

Tech:

• the Nvidia story is incredible; not sure if older, legacy investors are paying attention:
• X may just be the best source for staying informed when it comes to tech 
• the recent "tech sell-off" is an absolute godsend for many invesetors
  

California national monuments: new, announced by Biden administration in last 24 hours --

• White House press release;
• top stories:

Off-shore wind: I've had this story in the queue for several days; just haven't had a chance to get to it. Trump took care of that. Link here. 

Executive orders: the nice thing about executive orders? The next president can generally reverse them if he/she wants to reverse them. But gives Congress time to consider them for making them law.

However, if a president has had four years to prepare, executive orders issued on Day 1 will be in effect for a minimum of four years, or until a court shuts them down. But we learned with Obama: it takes awhile for the court to act.

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Back to the Bakken

WTI: $74.51.

The wells:

• Thursday, January 9, 2025: 14 for the month, 14 for the quarter, 14 for the year,
• 40758, conf, Neptune Operating LLC, Lee South 17-8-5 7H,
• 40563, conf, Empire North Dakota LLC, Sandpiper 29 1H,  
• Wednesday, January 8, 2025: 12 for the month, 12 for the quarter, 12 for the year,
• 40583, conf, Neptune Operating, Lee South 17-8-5 8H,
• 39999, conf, Hess, GO-State-157-97-2116H-6,

RBN Energy: the backstory behind Phillips 66's $2.2 billion plan to acquire EPIC NGL. Archived. RBN Energy has done an outstanding job covering this story. I can go back to at least December 8, 2016, when RBN Energy was posting blogs about this pipeline.

RBN Energy: Our Early Access blogs are normally exclusive to Backstage Pass subscribers.  However, due to the timely nature of today’s blog topic, we are opening this early access blog to all readers.

At first glance, you might think that Phillips 66’s newly announced, $2.2 billion plan to acquire the EPIC NGL pipeline system, two fractionators near Corpus Christi and other NGL-related assets in Texas is just another logical step in the expansion of P66’s “well-to-market” NGL strategy — and you’d be right. But the story is actually much more interesting, involving a long list of well-known midstream players and a long-running, still-evolving effort to dilute the Mont Belvieu NGL hub’s dominance. In today’s RBN blog, we spill the tea.

Ticker PSX: